Planning Policy

: My hon. Friend, as ever, raises a very interesting question. I shall take the fine example of our Prime Minister and say that this is probably not a question for me, but for the Minister for Housing and Planning. I hope that she will address that point when she responds. I mentioned that the population size of Lichfield had expanded to 28,000 and that we had a pleasant new development, which was mainly built in the 1980s. However, the further major growth spurt taking place now is of a wholly different style and character to those of the past. The largest single site is a greenfield site on the edge of the city, where in the late 1990s permission was originally granted for 650 dwellings. However, in 2004, on the back of PPG3 policies, revised planning permission was granted to increase that to 1,100 dwellings. For the mathematically minded, that is 70 per cent. more houses on exactly the same area. If the proposed PPS3 policies had been in place, the increase could well have been far greater. Such high-density housing creates an inner-city style of development, totally out of keeping with the character of the rural fringe of an historic market town. The houses are predominantly three-storey units with relatively small rooms, handkerchief-sized gardens, or perhaps no gardens at all. I accept that some home owners enjoy that configuration, as it provides for easy maintenance, but the houses are packed so closely together and front so tightly on to the narrow estate roads that they are in almost permanent shade, even at the height of summer. There are some open landscaped areas, but almost nowhere that has suitable space for children to kick a football around. Slightly adapting Miranda's lines in ““The Tempest”” let me say, ““O, wonder! How many goodly creatures are there here! O brave new world. That has such houses in't.””